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A Eulogy for RadioShack

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Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#121

Post by CamperBob2 »

kjs3 wrote: post #71
personZ wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite a few comments about how Radio Shack lost their way and squandered their opportunity, but really their business model was dead. Nothing they could have done would have changed what happened. It was a store with a very large number of SKUs that they could only sustain through very high profit margins. Sure that works great when it's Sunday and you need that resistor now, but the vast majority of times people wou…

RS was out of the "grab a part on the weekend for a project" business a decade or so before "order online" was an option.

I still use them all the time for just that. You no longer get a choice of 10 different bipolars and 3 different VMOS FETs, but the parts drawer is still pretty useful when all you need is a relay or an Arduino board.

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#123

Post by 72deluxe »

linker3000 wrote: post #115
timthorn wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maplin has been doing ecommerce for over twenty years - anyone else remember CASHTel?

Yep. My Maplin customer number is only 4 digits - which always throws the staff if they use it/ Mind you, Maplin has turned into a UK Tandy and is really no longer a sane source for electronic components. Wouldn't be surprised if they eventually went down the pan or shrunk their stores base. Remember the orange/green/white collectable discount vouchers you'd receive with your orders.

Yes, I thought they were turning into a strange PC-World / odd electrical bits shop too.

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#124

Post by personZ »

kjs3 wrote: post #71
personZ wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite a few comments about how Radio Shack lost their way and squandered their opportunity, but really their business model was dead. Nothing they could have done would have changed what happened. It was a store with a very large number of SKUs that they could only sustain through very high profit margins. Sure that works great when it's Sunday and you need that resistor now, but the vast majority of times people wou…

RS was out of the "grab a part on the weekend for a project" business a decade or so before "order online" was an option.

They transitioned through many variations of the "lots of inventory of small things" markets: Batteries, media, cables, connectors, converters, etc.

Ebay and Amazon, both launched in 1995, spelled doom for a store that relied on selling you the overpriced battery, CD-R, or $90 HDMI cable.

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#125

Post by j_lev »

mb_72 wrote: post #84
breadbox wrote: post #7

It's awful to read that and compare it with what Radio Shack was for us geeklings in the 1980s. For those of us living far from big cities, Radio Shack was the source of electric parts, IC chips, LEDs, not to mention hands-on access to actual computers.

I lived in a country town in South Australia in the early 80s, and without the local Tandy (Oz brand of RS) I wouldn't have got into electronics or software, both of which now are my main source of income and also a source of a hell of a lot of fun. Fortunately these days the opportunity for kids to discover new stuff is provided by Internet access, but it's still a sad coda to the joy RS provided in my youth.

I didn't realise that these were the same place! My 50-in-1 Electronic Project Kit manual often referenced "Radio Shack" and visiting a Radio Shack was my number one reason for wanting to go to the US.

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#126

Post by PhantomGremlin »

cicero wrote: post #37
adricnet wrote: post #2

That's certainly an interesting read... and one I can't really argue with the anecdata of from my own experiences. So I'll add one: After it was too late by that author's reckoning, the parent of Radio Shack tried another venture, a "big box" store called The Incredible Universe. When that failed and they wrote it off, it wiped out the entire profit of Radio Shack thousands of stores for that financial year. I still…

The Fry's in Dallas is in the space of a former Incredible Universe. The Fry's is decorated like a cattle ranch, but Incredible Universe was like a rock concert. The first time I went in there, I immediately thought they were trying too hard to be cool. It was completely over the top, so I'm not surprised they wiped out all of their profits. It's too bad they couldn't find a happy medium.

Okay, based on the other replies here I sense a common theme. The Fry's in Wilsonville Oregon is in a former Incredible Universe location. No discernible theme to the decor, it's mostly a "cheap warehouse" vibe.

It's big, but some of the California Fry's stores I've been to were much bigger, and much better stocked.

But Fry's knows how to keep costs low. I'm pretty sure that for at least a decade after the takeover there were a number of trucks with Incredible Universe markings parked outside. No point in repainting!

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#127

Post by rprospero »

cicero wrote: post #37
adricnet wrote: post #2

That's certainly an interesting read... and one I can't really argue with the anecdata of from my own experiences. So I'll add one: After it was too late by that author's reckoning, the parent of Radio Shack tried another venture, a "big box" store called The Incredible Universe. When that failed and they wrote it off, it wiped out the entire profit of Radio Shack thousands of stores for that financial year. I still…

The Fry's in Dallas is in the space of a former Incredible Universe. The Fry's is decorated like a cattle ranch, but Incredible Universe was like a rock concert. The first time I went in there, I immediately thought they were trying too hard to be cool. It was completely over the top, so I'm not surprised they wiped out all of their profits. It's too bad they couldn't find a happy medium.

Just to add on to the dogpile, even the Fry's in Indianapolis is in a building originally built for an Incredible Universe.

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#129

Post by morganvachon »

chaostheory wrote: post #96
morganvachon wrote: post #25

I'd be willing to bet that this is exactly the way it was at most, if not all, corporate RadioShack stores. On the other hand, the franchise stores (which mostly no longer exist) could be great places to shop and to work, because they were owned by actual breathing human beings, not faceless corporate overlords. My first "real" job after high school was at the local RadioShack, which was owned by one of the most amaz…

> he'll likely have to drop the RadioShack name one day soon Why is this sad when his store will outlive Radioshack? I'm sure he or one of his customers can come up with a better name anyways.

Well like I said, he'll just revert back to the original name, " Electronics" (where is the name of my hometown). He answers the phone as " Electronics RadioShack" as it is, so he could just drop the RS branding.

I say it's sad because it's a strategic location for a RadioShack; the one in the nearest town over dropped the franchise long ago and the owner merged his business with a local hardware store. So for about 30 miles all around, it's the only RadioShack. I have a feeling though, his regular clientele will keep him afloat, and he's smart enough to know how to keep new people coming in.

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#130

Post by slowmovintarget »

dragonwriter wrote: post #74
brianberns wrote: post #60

I learned to program in the early 1980s by playing with a TRS-80 floor model for an hour or two at a time while my mom shopped elsewhere in the mall. My first program animated a sine wave in BASIC by printing a single character one line at a time, and letting the lines scroll up the screen. I would've loved to own one of those computers, but my dad refused to buy one because he said it would be too tempting for me. H…

> My opinion of them started to go south about a decade ago when they began insisting that they needed to know my zipcode every time I bought something. When I worked for RS just out of high school (1990) that was already corporate policy.

I worked there in the mid-90s and it was a phone number.

C: "Why do you need to know my phone number?"

M: "I don't, ma'am, but the computer needs it."

C: "Oh, OK... 313..."

M: "It also wants your address."

C: "What? Why?"

M: {skip}{skip}{skip} "That'll be $5.68 ma'am."

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